The Indiana Democratic Party has decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Indiana’s requirement that voters at the polls must show a government photo-I.D. The 7th circuit had upheld that law on January 4, 2007, by a vote of 2-1. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
On May 16, Scotland’s Parliament chose Alex Salmond to be First Minister. He is the leader of the Scottish National Party. Although that party is 73 years old, it has never before been able to form a government of Scotland. The vote was 49 to 46. The 47 members of the SNP, plus the 2 Green Party members, voted for Salmond. All 46 Labor Party members voted for the outgoing First Minister. The representatives from the Conservative and Liberal Democratic Parties, and the lone independent, all abstained. The two Greens were only elected because elections for the Scottish Parliament use proportional representation.
On May 11, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer signed SB 96, which makes it illegal for out-of-staters to circulate initiative petitions in Montana, and makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis.
The US Supreme Court will probably decide on May 17 whether to hear the Guam election case. However, any decision won’t be known to the public until Monday, May 21. The case is Underwood v Guam, no. 06-1268. The issue is whether the term “votes cast” includes void votes. The answer will determine whether the gubernatorial election of 2006 should have had a run-off. A federal law requires the winning candidate for Governor of Guam to get a majority of “votes cast.”
According to a newspaper story in the Los Angeles Times of May 16, Unity08 now has 60,000 individuals who have signed up to be eligible to vote in its on-line presidential primary next year.
